Enhancing solar still performance through innovative modeling, integration with reflectors, and semi-transparent solar cells: A 3E analysis and multi-objective optimization

Abstract

An innovative single-slope solar still desalination system is presented, featuring a groundbreaking enhancement in the modelling methodology. The proposed system is evaluated through energy, exergy, and economic points of view. An attempt has been made to produce more distillation water by introducing the concept of critical pressure at the basin of the solar still system. Besides, in the proposed system, the flat reflectors to increase the received energy from the sun and a semi-transparent module to power production are applied. An investigation is conducted to achieve the main results of the system while operating in Boushehr, Lisboa, Riyadh, and Tripoli cities, and a parametric evaluation is carried out to perceive the system's behaviour in various situations. In addition, an integration of an arithmetic optimization algorithm and TOPSIS decision-maker is employed to determine the most optimum condition for each city through four scenarios. The results depicted the values of 14.9, 11.15, 15.58, and 13.48 kg/day for produced distilled water in Boushehr, Lisboa, Riyadh, and Tripoli cities, respectively.